the claws are out

cougarslideri think abc just found themselves in a bit of hot hypocrite water! heard of their new comedy ‘cougar town‘ starring courteney cox arquette? the show follows cox as a recently divorced single mother as she “explores the honest truths about dating and aging in a beauty and youth-obsessed culture”. the premiere was actually pretty darn funny, if you ask me! totally unrealistic of course, but funny.

anyway, apparently the dating website cougarlife.com saw the opportunity for a chance at a similar audience, and approached abc to run a commerical during ‘cougar town’s’ premiere. self-proclaimed cougar claudia openkelder runs the website, and was thrilled at the chance to advertise. while originally there was some debate about whether or not to air the commercial (see it in all of its glory, below), abc decided to move forward with the deal.

until… they pulled the plug last-minute! apparently they decided they no longer felt it was “appropriate” to promote a site for cougars. but yet they can air an entire show about them? claudia over at cougarlife.com was none too pleased and naturally released a statement:

“it appears the executives at abc seem a little too insecure to allow the notion of real world cougars to exist anywhere other than in the realm of fiction.”

BAM, cougar-lady!

her musical chops

she can sing! actress jennifer aniston appeared on ‘the ellen degeneres show’ today to promote her latest flick, ‘love happens.’ after some chitty chatting, ellen inquires about jen’s upcoming project called ‘the goree girls,’ which calls for aniston to sing. ellen coaxes the lovely lady to serenade the audience, and she obliges with a sultry rendition of ‘i’ve got a crush on you.’ pretty good if you ask me! check out the clip above.

‘the goree girls’ is based on the book by john lee hancock which centers around the true-life story of eight female inmates who form a country bank in texas back in the 1940′s. aniston is set to produce and star in the film, with michael sucsy (‘grey gardens’) directing. this should definitely be interesting, as we have rarely seen aniston in anything outside of romantic comedies.

director sucsy says of the flick:

“these women learned to harmonize and they learned to play instruments. they weren’t these amazing, accomplished singers who banded together. that’s what’s interesting about it. it’s not just like, ‘hey, you can play the guitar, i can play the piano, i can play the harmonica. let’s put a band together.’ it’s like, ‘we have to get out of jail, and if we have to put a band together to do that, then that’s what we’re going to do.’ “

jennifer will also have to learn to play the dobro (a guitar) for her starring role. sucsy plans on casting real musicians to play alongside aniston. ‘the goree girls’ is due out sometime late next year.

behold, the twitter king

ashton_kutcher1hey friends, did you know that ashton kutcher is the king of twitter? well, give him a chance and he’ll tell you all about it! the actor (does he still act?) has been runnin’ his mouth off all around town claiming to be all-important in the world of twitter.

he told the audience at a panel for fortune magazine’s brainstorm tech con, “i started twitter as a communication device to stay in touch with fans.” did ya, now? well, i will give him this – he is twitter’s most followed user. boasting over 3 million followers, it appears ashton spends more time on the micro-blogging site than making movies these days. “i shut down a website everyday because i send too much traffic there from my twitter feed.” 

he’s drunk with power, people! especially after he won the contest waged against cnn to gain the most followers. when asked by the interviewer at the tech convention about the battle, ashton says he’s “shocked that an individual could have as much influence in [social media] than a media conglomerate.”

it doesn’t look like the twitter king will let up anytime soon. he says it’s just too much fun! the bad news is, as long as twitter keeps growing, ashton’s follower count will as well. and that just means more fun claims to fame from @aplusk!

my favorite ‘friend’

jenniferansitonwhat do you do when your whole life’s on camera? well, poking a little fun at yourself couldn’t hurt. the old make ‘em laugh with you & not at you. so when jennifer aniston accepted the crystal award at the women in film awards this past friday night, that’s exactly what she did. gots to give her props, too, because her speech was pretty darn funny.

the award – for excellence in film – is a moment of pride for aniston, as she thanks fans for supporting her in her transition from tv to film. “it’s funny,” she starts off, “i kind of noticed something a couple years ago that there seemed to be this strange parallel to the movies i was doing and my life off screen. “it started with, well, ‘the good girl’ then that evolved into ‘rumor has it’, followed by ‘derailed’, and then there was ‘the break-up’. and then on the lighter side was ‘friends with money’, which i felt was a bit on the nose.”

of course, that got the audience going quite a bit. but the elephant in the room left to be discussed was her ongoing romance troubles. but she wasn’t about to pass up that joke. ”…and if anyone has a movie called ‘everlasting love with an adult stable man…i’m at table six, and my agents are at table 12.”

but see, that’s why we love her. she’s cute, funny, and very very real. so congrats to jen for the award and for her success in the biz.

 

there’s money in dancing

dancing with the stars. or as one comedien put it, dancing with the vaguely familiar. yeah, that’s more like it! one of those vaguely familiar contestants this season was olympic gold-medalist shawn johnson. the 17-year-old gymnast was a natural, and definitely helped draw a wider audience. i’m pretty sure abc knew that, judging by shawn’s tv contract. here’s the breakdown:

- $125,000 for signing on
- $10,000 for weeks 3 & 4
- $20,000 for weeks 5, 6 & 7
- $30,000 for weeks 8 & 9
- $50,000 for weeks 10 & 11


……… and, since shawn won the whole she-bang, she gets a bonus of $325,000. that means this little lady pocketed a cool $730,000 for simply dancing her heart out. wowzers.